The knowns and unknowns of GOP Convention 2012

What you have heard so far:

That Mitt Romney’s experience as Governor of Massachusetts is what will save America

That Mitt Romney’s superior intellect and brilliant knowledge of business is what will save America

That, apparently, the focus of Republicans is “love”

That Republicans will choose respect over love

That Republicans will “usher in a new era of truth telling”

That abortion must be illegal, in any form, under any circumstances, with no exceptions

That Mitt Romney’s tax plan will be “evocative of President James K. Polk’s tax plan.”

That all Americans must share in the sacrifice to make America great again and that there will be pain and sacrifice

That only Republicans know how to build anything

That Barack Obama hates small business owners

That Barack Obama hates corporations

That Barack Obama hates the elderly

That Barack Obama hates veterans

That Barack Obama hates entrepreneurs

That Barack Obama hates children

That Barack Obama hates America

That Barack Obama loves beer

That only Republicans understand what role higher education should play in the development and advancement of America’s future

That Barack Obama is force-feeding cuts to the Defense Department budget down the throats of loyal Republicans in Congress

That Republicans in Congress are fed up with being stymied at every attempt to work with the president to reach compromise on any issue whatsoever.

That Barack Obama is responsible for factories and manufacturing plants that closed before he became president.

That repealing the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) on day one of a Romney presidency is a “mandate from God”

That repealing taxes imposed and raised by President Obama is “not only a mandate from God but a mandate from the people … you people”

That a Republican-led Congress will put an end to the endless cycle of partisanship, futility, obstruction and ridiculous use of filibusters and other political tricks.

That Mitt Romney will return to Americans all the freedoms and opportunities that Barack Obama has stolen from them

That Mitt and Ann Romney lived like poverty-stricken college dorm Bohemians in a basement apartment when they were young

That Mitt Romney is a self-made success story who didn’t start out from any position of wealth or privilege

That Barack Obama is is 51-years-old and that makes his ideas old, and tired, and outdated, and not what this country needs – but 65-year-old Romney is the “fresh face of the young, entrepreneurial spirit that this country desperately needs to take back.”

That one of the true, inarguable issues that needs to be addressed is that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are too wealthy to be able to connect or empathize with common Americans because they’ve been wealthy for years.

What you HAVEN’T heard so far

Any mention whatsoever of Romney’s offshore tax havens

Any mention whatsoever of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin

Any mention whatsoever of “forcible rape” or “legitimate rape” or Akin’s claim that women have pregnancy-preventing anti-rape weaponry built into their vaginas

Any mention whatsoever of President Barack Obama’s birthplace or birth certificate

Any mention whatsoever of the name “Bain”

Any mention whatsoever of the physical location of the jobs supposedly created by Mitt Romney (or any of the other self-professed Republican “job creators” at the convention)

Any mention whatsoever of Romney’s actual accomplishments as Governor of Massachusetts

Any mention whatsoever of specifics for how Romney and Ryan plan to privatize Medicare;

exactly what that will mean to taxpayers in terms of cost

exactly how much these “vouchers” would be for, and a contrast to what health care would cost under Romneycare

which company they have in mine to take over Medicare operations

how much profit that company will reap from owning Medicare

what fees and fee structure that company will impose

what would happen to the trillion-plus dollars Americans have already paid into Medicare

Any mention whatsoever of Mitt Romney’s tax returns

including any explanation of why so many mandatory and critical forms seem to be missing from the sole incomplete return Romney has released to the public

Any mention whatsoever of the specifics of the Romney/Ryan tax plan

including how the $716 Billion they’re claiming Obama is “funneling out of the system” show up verbatim, in the identical context, in Ryan’s own budget proposal

including which tax deductions will be eliminated

including which new tax deductions or reductions will be implemented

including an explanation of how dramatic (or is that dogmatic?) tax cuts will result in more revenue

Any mention whatsoever of troop withdrawal from either Iraq or Afghanistan